The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1887-11-24
GIRLS AMONG BONDS.
AN INDUSTRY IN WHICH WOMEN
ARE SUPERIOR TO MEN.

/
ARE SUPERIOR TO MEN.
The Way Good Looking Young Ladies
, Make and Handle NIiIlions-Their Wori
and Their Pay-Intricacics of Banknots
and Bond Engraving.
'Those are tho girls who make money,
remarked u gentleman as long line OF girls
came laughing and chatting out of q big
building They We're happy and cheerful
and as handsomely dressed and jauntily ar
rayed as if they were just making their exit
from matinee. A reporter ventured up tc
the eighth floor of the big building to see the
money making process
: Seated at their desks in the company's
Office are the young ladies who act as ac-
countants and timekeepers. They are ex-
perts at figures and the whole business of the
department has been reduced to such a system
that almost at glance the cost of every
thing that enters into the work, even to the
gum ON the back of a stamp, can be ascer-
tanned.
A door to the left was opened. and disclosed
TO view ten a dozen girls engaged i'll reri-
flying numbers and counting perfected work
Here great skill ard quick perception arc re-
quired. Sharp eyes run with the speed of
lightning down the long rows Of coupons and
verify the numbers, while other eyes, equally
as quick, examine each sheet and it is passed
along or tossed out as imperfect, until the
finished work reaches the counter" by whom
it is bundled, marked and certified with her
signature. 1t then goes to the great safe,
where it is receipted for, and the work is fin
ished.
MILLIONS OF SECURITIES
Standing in this safe, surrounded by mil
lions of securities, including many of the
South and Central American republics, as
well Us those of innumerable corporations in
the United States and Europe, the process of
engraving and printing was explained from
the time the blank paper left tho stock room
until it reached this safe in its finished condi-
tion. The whole business is conducted on q
series of orders and receipts, and not a sheet
scrap of paper can go astray from the
time it enters the establishment until it is
ready for delivery. Indeed, when the safes
and fircproof vaults are locked ct night there
isn't paper enough about the establishment
for q mouse to make bed.
Although European competition is large
this country secures the better class of bond
| and banknote work, for in no other land has
engraving in this special line reached such
perfection. Today the money makers of the
United States stand at the head of the list, its
inventive genius having solved many of the
problems Of defeating the ilnitator and the
countcrfcitcr. Here, for instance, is bond
of Cuba. On the back is map Of the island,
and il the net of scroll work the word "Cuba"
is woven 1000 times. 1t is however, but a
sample of many Others the counterfeiting of
which is absolutely impossible. In the passage
- go -,
house it has been bjected to fifty-two count
ings from as many different persons Every
spoiled and defective sheet has also been &c
counted for.
The engraving rooms, where skillful artists
were at their work; the process by which the
engraved plates were transferred to the steel
press plates and hardened; the gcometrical
lathe for engraving scroll work, which can
not be duplicated by hand; the printing and
the ink rooms-all were visited, as were also
the great iron vaults, containing hundreds of
perfect plates, from which an average of
10, ,0O0, 900 each of securities have been printed
IN TIE E3,iaAvING ROOMS.
And except in the heavier parts of the
business and in the engraving rooms the
girls who make money were everywhere
They were met in the halls and rooms of the
building their arms burtlened with bundles
of securities, which they were Transporting
! on their way to perfection, the amount in
hand being great enough to make them mil
lionaircs; in the rooms running numbering
machines, as counters, pinrers, flyers; and in
the press room, where each girl was assisting
''her man" in running the press, by damp
i ing, laying and flying the Sheet while ''her
man" applied the ink, prepared the plate and
did the presswork. In this department each
girl speaks of the pressman as cher man."
tho two working together, and when one is
absent the other, perforce, is idle also. In
| fact, whenever girls are employed in the
mechanical department of making money,
| they appear as mans assistant and help
mate. In the tower of the building there
was i,arfect beehive of girls hard at work
examining and preparing the money on the
tables before them, and happy and cheerful
looking ladies they were, too, as were about
| all employed in the establishment.
| There, too, you find pure, unadulterated
| democracy. The girl who is engaged in
counting $4,000 bonds and examining their
| coupons does not think herself q bit more ele-
| waited than the one who is asserting ten cent
notes, nor does she believe herself justified
| in drawing invidiols distinctions. She knows
! in this mimicry, as in real life, the whirligig
of time may throw the bonds into the lap Of
her companion, and give her the small
change portion.
| The very character Of the work precludcs
I the possibly of much talking. The eye, the
touch and the mind must be intent On tho
task in hand, for negligence or inattention is
certain 70 lie detected at the next stage the
: money takes in transit.
"Why do You employ girls in the process
! of money making instead OF men and boysf'
asked the reporter of his guide.
! because they are quicker Of perception,
have more delIcatc sense of touch and are
more tractable than boys. In fact, a girl Of
II, if suited to cur employ, has the fixed
habits of a man Of -. combined with greater
expertncss Then they have n deeper sense
of duty, do exactly as they are instructed,
and arc in every way more reliable than
boys, or even very young men New York
/ Star.